Radiology lab: X-ray machine lying idle at DHQ Hospital

FAISALABAD:

A state-of-the-art X-ray machine bought last year by the Divisional Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital has still not been installed and patients are being told to get X-rayed at private laboratories, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The machine had been purchased for Rs5 million for the DHQ Hospital’s radiology department in August 2012, but gathered dust in the hospital store for six months. It was eventually taken to the radiology department but still hasn’t been installed.

DHQ Medical Superintendent Dr Muhammad Arif told The Express Tribune that the hospital had two X-ray machines, one for the radiology department and the other for the emergency room.

“We want to get maximum use of the machines currently in operation... That is why we haven’t installed the third machine yet,” Dr Arif said.



The machine was placed on stand-by in the radiology department so it could be installed when the old machine stopped working, he said.
But patients visiting the hospital told The Express Tribune that the radiology department X-ray machine was out of order. Yasir Fareed, a patient, said, “I needed a medical fitness certificate and went to the radiology department for an X-ray. I was told to go to the emergency room as the machine in the radiology department was out of order. There was a long queue of people waiting to get X-rayed there.”

“When it was my turn to get X-rayed, the radiologist told me it was late and I would have to come back the following day,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2013.